Thursday, January 26, 2006

International Human Rights News Update

Google's deal with China hurts freedom of expression, Institute on Religion and Public Policy says The Institute on Religion and Public Policy this week released a statement condemning Google's move to aquiesce to Chinese government demands by self-censoring its Chinese website.IRRP writes:

"Google has long been a champion of the free flow of ideas and information. In its "Ten Things Google has Found to be True," the company stresses that "the need for information crosses all borders," "democracy on the web works," and that there is an ability to make money "without doing evil," the letter continued. "With Google, Inc.’s self-censorship agreement in China, it has violated its own body of beliefs. There will be no information without borders, no democracy of the internet; instead, Google has turned its back on freedom of information in favor of profits."

Saudi bloggers on the riseStephen Schwartz reports in The Weekly Standard that blogging is taking off as a forum for uncharacteristially free speech in Saudi Arabia in "Blogging Saudi Arabia." Schwartz writes that the 80 active blogs maintained within the country are "daring in their freedom of expression."

Schwartz continues:

"Saudi Blogs": For all its simplicity, the phrase has a revolutionary ring, like "Continental Congress" or "Polish Solidarity." Poland and the other Soviet-bloc Communist dictatorships were liberated with the help of the mimeograph and Xerox machines. Saudi Arabia and Iran may be freed by blogs and camera phones, perhaps giving Saudi King Abdullah more than he bargained for in the way of "an advanced Muslim technology." For now, the Saudi authorities continue to block conventional websites maintained by reformists, like tuwaa.com, while permitting infamous Wahhabi hate sites, like alsaha.com, to operate. But the tyrants are falling behind and losing control of events.